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Bob was also a part of the long debates around skeumorphism. Bob was extremely (cartoonishly) skeumorphic: to get to word processing you clicked a typewriter, t

Bob was also a part of the long debates around skeumorphism. Bob was extremely (cartoonishly) skeumorphic: to get to word processing you clicked a typewriter, to get to contacts you clicked an antique rolodex, and so forth. It used a talking dog (by default) to explain things to the user rather than "faceless" dialog boxes asking questions "out of nowhere". We're probably always going to fight skeumorphism debates on where the right balance is for user ease of learning/discovery ("I know what a typewriter is, if I click can I type a document?") versus the density compaction (both in physical space and arguably in mental space) of reducing "skeumorphic clutter". (The typewriter in Bob was thousands of pixels to display even its simplified cartoonish form; the [W] logo of Word fits as small as dozens of pixels. Similarly too, once you know Word exists does "I need Word, and its a word processing app, so I should think of a typewriter and click the typewriter" get in the way of "use Word"?)

WorldMaker 6y ago
Even more of a tangent: that's one of the things that Office got wrong with Assistants versus "Bob's principles". They had both tons of "faceless" dialog boxes and status indicators and a face for some of them. You never knew if the thing you needed was an Assistant "chat" dialog or an older dialog or some weird mix of the two. Complain all you want about the inconsistencies in Windows 10's settings versus getting dropped back into classic Win32 control panels, that's nothing on the worse inconsistencies of the Office Assistant era.
- hulitu 6y ago
  You could turn off the office assistant. You are however stuck with the brain damage that is windows 10.
bombcar 6y ago
What's interesting about the skeuomorphism is that as tech progresses it becomes skeuomorphic to older tech - a perfect example is seeing a Floppy Disk as a Save Icon in an iPad program. It's likely a significant number of people don't know what it is beyond "save".
- WorldMaker 6y ago
  Apocryphal or not I still love the meme story of a kid finding a floppy disk and asking why someone would bother to 3D print a "save icon". Other examples I included even in my above comment. Whoever "Bob" was, his home/office made him seem a curious luddite or eccentric throwback. He used what seemed a 1930s typewriter and his style of rolodex was from at least the 1950s, IIRC. On the one hand it was kind of cozy like visiting the home of a loving grandparent (perhaps Bob was always meant to evoke everyone's collective eccentric grandpa?), but on the other hand there was some "ludic dissonance" in that it was supposed to be "your house" and you were encouraged to customize and play with it. Why would I keep a typewriter so prominently? Are we sure we want a massive metal rolodex that's more likely to injure people (if not also be a tetanus risk) than be useful in a house with (talking) pets? Bob's skeumorphism was already dated in the 1990s that it launched into, and that's a fascinating reflection of it as well.

WorldMaker 6y ago

Even more of a tangent: that's one of the things that Office got wrong with Assistants versus "Bob's principles". They had both tons of "faceless" dialog boxes and status indicators and a face for some of them. You never knew if the thing you needed was an Assistant "chat" dialog or an older dialog or some weird mix of the two. Complain all you want about the inconsistencies in Windows 10's settings versus getting dropped back into classic Win32 control panels, that's nothing on the worse inconsistencies of the Office Assistant era.

hulitu 6y ago
You could turn off the office assistant. You are however stuck with the brain damage that is windows 10.

bombcar 6y ago

What's interesting about the skeuomorphism is that as tech progresses it becomes skeuomorphic to older tech - a perfect example is seeing a Floppy Disk as a Save Icon in an iPad program. It's likely a significant number of people don't know what it is beyond "save".

WorldMaker 6y ago
Apocryphal or not I still love the meme story of a kid finding a floppy disk and asking why someone would bother to 3D print a "save icon". Other examples I included even in my above comment. Whoever "Bob" was, his home/office made him seem a curious luddite or eccentric throwback. He used what seemed a 1930s typewriter and his style of rolodex was from at least the 1950s, IIRC. On the one hand it was kind of cozy like visiting the home of a loving grandparent (perhaps Bob was always meant to evoke everyone's collective eccentric grandpa?), but on the other hand there was some "ludic dissonance" in that it was supposed to be "your house" and you were encouraged to customize and play with it. Why would I keep a typewriter so prominently? Are we sure we want a massive metal rolodex that's more likely to injure people (if not also be a tetanus risk) than be useful in a house with (talking) pets? Bob's skeumorphism was already dated in the 1990s that it launched into, and that's a fascinating reflection of it as well.